One of the biggest obstacles people face when they decide to build a business on the Internet is choosing a product or service to offer. This, typically, is a result of our natural tendency to make things more complicated than they need to be. We imagine a detailed, complex process that involves hours of research and maybe even some expensive software. But, in reality, identifying a hungry market can be broken down into a straight-forward, 3 step process. The first step is to quickly get clear on the product or service you want to offer. This is the starting place, whether you are just getting...

Apple’s campaign to introduce the iPhone, which combines a cellphone with an iPod with Internet access, may be the most successful marketing effort ever. Just prior to the product’s release, it was estimated that two-thirds of the population of the U.S. was aware of the device. The hype surrounding the introduction was phenomenal. Over the six months prior to the product’s introduction it was the subject of 14,000 articles, 311,000 blog posts and it generated 69 million hits on Google. Apple’s marketing efforts have always been a cut above the rest, starting with their...

Marketing mix is one of the major concepts of marketing. According to the traditional base, there are 4Ps of marketing. These are referred to as the marketing mix. But in the modern use of the term, many more Ps have been coined. People have found six, seven even eleven Ps of marketing. In this article we will talk about the 4Ps and 6Ps. Four Ps The four Ps of marketing mix consist of Product, Price, Place and Promotion. Product means the thing that you are selling. It can also be a service like the tourism industry. Price means the rate at which the product is being sold. A number of factors...

1. Have a process in place to deal with negative publicity Remember that even if you have a PR firm handling the public relations for your company, national strategies are only effective if implemented locally. Anticipate the unexpected and prepare a crisis communications plan. Employees should be trained on how to deal with likely crises, such as product recalls. Don’t speculate on anything when speaking with the media; only tell them what you know. In the meantime, provide them with a steady stream of information BEFORE anything occurs so you have good relations with reporters in place....